Antonio
Rosmini
Introduction
to the Person of Antonio Rosmini
Antonio
Rosmini is one of the most lively and stimulating figures of the
present day in the overall picture of religious and lay culture in
Italy and Western Europe. He lived in the first half of the nineteenth
century (Rovereto 1797 – Stresa 1855). He was a priest, a religious and
the founder of two religious Orders (the Institute or Society of
Charity and the Sisters of Providence). He was an encyclopaedic
thinker, author of more than a hundred works, constituting a type of
summa totius christianitatis [a summa of the whole of Christianity]
both philosophical and theological (Michele Federico Sciacca’s
analogy). He was the embodiment of charity (which for him meant love of
God) on all levels, temporal (he supported the poor of all types),
intellectual (he provided intellectual nourishment) and spiritual (he
helped the spiritually needy).
The spirit which
guided him was suggested to him by Pius VIII to lead people to religion
by means of reason.
Above all he was acutely
aware that western culture needed to maintain unity between faith and
reason in friendship, the Gospel and progress, the natural and
supernatural world, knowledge and faith. He realized that modern
history ran the risk of closing man in on himself in the name of
reason, that is, of detaching him from the transcendent, of causing him
to fall back on his own strength, of convincing himself that he could
fashion his life without the need of God. This would be a journey to
death, which would lead to intellectual confusion and the loss of
ethical and spiritual values.
In order to fulfil
his evangelical mission of intellectual charity Rosmini chose a
language and method more in harmony with the times, but he remained
solidly anchored to the genuine values, of authentic Christian
tradition: he fostered the essence of the faith in Augustine and
Thomas, and in drawing on it, he enriched it, but he initiated a method
which can be summarised by saying that while preceding schools had
started with God to arrive at man, I have started with man to reach God.
Alongside
this in the political sphere, he and his friend Manzoni, regarded with
interest the rise of liberal democracies, noting in them an evangelical
nucleus of freedom and the dignity of the human person which was being
encouraged and purified.
The new language, the
upside down method, his interest in democratic movements, together with
appropriate ideas, which later turned out to be prophetic, aroused some
apprehension in traditional Catholic circles, in which we clearly see
today both the short sightedness of his adversaries’ views and the
confusion between the message and the new means in which it was
communicated. They feared that the teaching of Rosmini would lead to a
distortion in Catholic dogma and attempt to introduce democracy into
the Church. Lay culture, however, opposed the purity of his Christian
orthodoxy, his belief that friendship, reason and faith should be
intertwined. The first put Rosmini on the same level as Thomas
superficially denying that he was faithful to the words of St Thomas,
the second put Rosmini on the same level as Kant and his German
idealism, denying that he was faithful to this idealistic vision. A
century and a half was needed in order that the person of Rosmini,
removed from the passions and partisan views of the time, might be seen
as a clear and holy thinker, while no one who had experienced it ever
hesitated to doubt his holiness.
At one stage
Rosmini suffered for the way he related to emerging democracies. In
1849 his two books Le cinque piaghe della santa Chiesa [The Five Wounds
of Holy Church] and La Costituzione secondo la giustizia sociale [The
Constitution according to Social Justice] were put on the Index of
prohibited books.
But his adversaries, as it
were, constrained Pius IX to have all his other published works
examined up to that time, in the hope of obtaining a condemnation of
them. It was a serious examination, lasting for several months in which
the contents of his works were scrutinized, and it was followed
personally by the Pope. This resulted in his works being declared free
from any ecclesiastical censure (1854).
The conclusion of
Pius IX disappointed those who had expected a condemnation of all his
work. After the death of Pius IX Rosmini’s adversaries got his works
examined a second time. This time the outcome satisfied them because it
carried a condemnation, though precautionary, of forty propositions
taken from many of his works, with the explanation that “they did not
appear to be in harmony with Catholic truth”. That “did not appear” can
be justified by the novelty of his words and method, and in addition a
reasonable apprehension about the influence idealism had on his
contemporaries.
There followed a very long period of
detailed and painstaking studies on the work of Rosmini, on its
content, on his orthodoxy, on the sharing of his ideas with Thomism, on
his distancing himself from idealism. It was basically what was
suggested by the document of prohibition itself, like a suspension of
judgement more than a definite condemnation. This intense study,
accompanied by the social and political situation which was changing in
favour of Rosminian ideas caused a new Rosmini to come to light and his
true identity to be restored.
On the part of the
laity Giovanni Gentile was the first to become aware of the greatness
of his thought,even though he did not perceive his religious values but
on the other hand attempted to associate him with idealistic theories.
On the Catholic side, the studies of Michele Federico Sciacca caused
the pure orthodoxy and the distinctiveness of Rosmini as an imposing
Catholic thinker to emerge. On the strictly Rosminian side, the fathers
of his religious Institute promoted the person and thought of Rosmini
in his integrity preserving the heritage left by him and defending it
from any kind of erroneous exploitation and interpretation.
Gradually
decades passed, his holiness and thought began to assert themselves
with ever-greater clarity. In Vatican Council II some bishops hailed
him as a prophetic figure. The Popes who followed Pius XII all spoke of
him with esteem and appreciation, until the time came for the
pontifical commissions to re-examine his works. After three
commissions, each lasting about two years, there came the outcome of
the Nota of the Congregation of July 2001. This officially cancelled
the reservations established in 1888. Basically it said that the forty
propositions had been prohibited as a precautionary measure because it
was necessary that time and study should clarify their exact meaning.
Studies had been carried out, suspicion abandoned: there was no longer
any reason for maintaining the reservation and suspension of judgement.
With
his imminent beatification, then, mother Church offers to those of the
present a son which is genuinely hers, a person of integrity, holy
because of the evidence of his life and as teacher. His writings
constitute an intellectual, spiritual and theological patrimony which
is both rich and stimulating. Rosmini has gathered and placed at the
service of his brethren old and new treasures of the deposit of faith.
He
can help secular people in the correct use of reason, to confidently
face up to their salvation and to the transcendent. To believers he
offers the possibility of holiness which is thoughtful, aware, and
intelligent, one which involves the whole of the human person (feeling,
reason and will). To all people he is held up as a bridge builder, a
man of dialogue, a friendly person who persuades one to accept the
whole truth, to love God and neighbour with their whole heart, thinking
and loving on a grand scale, that is, searching for the best in all one
does or thinks or loves.
Above all Rosmini today teaches us
how to unite the earthly with the heavenly, the temporal with the
eternal, the truth with charity, human fragility with the power of the
grace of God, the dignity of the human person with the demand that the
cross of Christ makes on him. The more we approach his writings the
more we become familiar with the charity with which he sees and conveys
truths, and the more hope is rekindled in us to track down lost truths
and the overall, ultimate meaning of human existence.
In
conclusion: I see the beatification of Rosmini in a small way, if you
like, as a recognition of his human and spiritual greatness which
sweeps away the clouds of the past which have hung over him, a
confirmation of the merit which he accumulated in his service of the
Church and his neighbour. But above all I see the beatification as a
bridge built for the future, as a promise to use and exploit. It is as
if the Church is placing on a lamp stand a light which remained for a
long time under a table, exhorting us in these times of the obscurity
of truth and charity (nihilism and relativism) to make use of the light
of truth and of the fire of charity which shines forth from it.
Umberto
Muratore
Director of the Centro Internazionale di studi
Rosminiani
(Director of the International Centre
of Rosminian Studies)